Candles
by his loss
Summary: Halloween/Dia de los Muertos/Something Wicked This Way Comes inspired oneshot. Axel finds Roxas again in Sora on a brisk autumn day, in another world, where Riku is waiting patiently for him to grow up enough to satisfy his lust. [Roxas(Sora)Axel] and [RikuSora]


_I own no legal rights to the characters of the Kingdom Hearts franchise._

_Inspired by Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury and Dia de los Muertos._

* * *

**Candles**

* * *

Two boys sat on the front lawn on the corner of Chernabog Ave, their bicycles tossed aside. It was a mild first of November, breezy. Pale grey clouds framed the horizon. The taller of the two boys laughed with a gentle, mature laugh that beguiled his years. He had strong upper arms whose elbows dug into the drying blades of grass. The shorter of the two, falling back and kicking his feet up, laughed harder. No one passing by would have been surprised to see them there, together. Riku Volere and Sora Cuore had been inseparable since the day Sora, hair haphazard and brown brown even then, crossed the street for the first time on his own and banged his chubby five year old hands against Rikus screen door. He'd been reluctant, at first, to play with a boy two years younger than him and still a baby, but his mother had pushed him out, insisting. The neighborhood was never so quiet afterward.

Hallow Eve had come and gone, and Sora's pockets rustled with the thin plastic sound of candy wrappers. They'd dressed as goblins - Riku's idea - and gone gallivanting off into the night, returning well past midnight. Neither Mrs. Cuore nor Mrs. Volere worried. The boys had been on many adventures, and neither had emerged without more than a scrape or bruise or two, but happier and more whole then before. Riku certainly wouldn't let anything happen to his friend and Sora had what could be considered more honest intentions. Riku was impulsive, and his impulses were born from mischief and dark curiosity.

They were from religious families, well mannered in the company of adults, and possessed - combined between them - a certain amount of booksmarts and streetsmarts.

So when the long, thin shadow of a man with a flame at the cowl of his head came wandering down the street, neither of them sat up, choosing instead to maintain their relaxed poses. The man had shards of green glass for eyes and a bundle of candles under each arm. The shafts were carved with intricate patterns, sloping script of Bible verse.

"Care for a light, boys?" the stranger offered, his voice slightly nasal in the vowels.

Riku raised a pale eyebrow in Sora's direction.

"On All Soul's Day, light this candle in your window, and your dreams will be visited by the spirits of your loving departed."

Sora's thoughts immediately jumped to his father, lost at sea so many years ago. Riku must have sensed it, because his heart reacted with a stab of pain.

"How much?" he asked, making Sora's face brighten.

The man fixed his eye on Sora a moment longer than either of them liked and drawled, "Free of charge, gents," and handed them a candle as high as Sora's knee, the wax carvings dripping with blue blue ink. With a smirk that made the tattoos under his eyes jump like thieves in the night, the man continued, crossing the street and wandering on. The smell of burning lingered in his wake.

Riku left Sora to the ritual of placing and lighting the candle and rode his bike into town. The breeze had picked up, bringing the smell of the ocean in. He locked his bike near the grocery store and walked the rest of the way downtown the dock, hooking a left and climbing over the rocks the the ledge overlooking a concealed cove. Sora didn't know about this place.

On the rough little stretch of beach below him, a bonfire was lit, competing with the sun setting over the water.

A group of boys and girls gathered around, all of them older than Riku's fifteen years. A faint rotting smell, herbal, drifted up to him. They danced wildly and crookedly around the heat, drinking themselves dizzy. Their shadows thrown against the rock walls were sinister. Riku made himself small and invisible, waiting.

The seas swallowed the sun and plunged everything but the fire and the shapes around it into dark. They were more beautiful by the firelight, spinning and falling against each other, mouths melting against skin. They seemed almost to float.

One boy, more sobered than the others, shed his shit, revealing a physique similar to Riku's, defined without insisting upon itself. He sauntered slowly over to another, relaxed against a pile of coats and a folded bolster pillow. Their kiss was sudden and sensual. Riku's was close enough to watch their tongues trade dancing, watch the gasp in the throat as the shirtless boy ran his hand up the seam of his companion's pants. Riku's was not alone in watching. Several pairs of eyes watched the slow grinding of male musculature. The shirtless boy slipped his hand past the thick zipper, then broke the heated kiss to press his lips to the taut pelvic crease. In his hands, the other boy's member swelled. It was only after his head was thrown back in ecstasy, thrusting into his lover's mouth, did Riku's manage to tear his eyes away.

* * *

As he rode back home, the candle in Sora's window seemed to beckon. But he was too ashamed to be seen by his best friend. Images of flesh tortured his mind every time he closed his eyes, his dark curious self replacing the bodies of those two youths with his and Sora's. in the warm folds on his own sheets he gave in to the fantasy and let himself imagine how gentle he would be, how Sora would gasp in barely contained pleasure.

He woke too early the next day, wandering outdoors to drag the garbage can to the curb. Sora's candle was still lit, and he barely noticed the rustling of paper underfoot as he stepped onto his porch to observe it and wonder if it would work. A crisp crunch underfoot alerted him and he rubbed at his sleep deprived eyes, pulling up an acid green flyer.

All Soul's Day Gathering, it proclaimed in curling, gothic letters. A festival, a parade of candle light up to the graveyard on 13th street. Carnival games, food, music. Riku's abandoned his sinful thoughts of the flesh and stuffed it in his pocket, dashing across the street and climbing the tree outside Sora's window with ease.

He knocked frantically on the window and waited. A long moment later - some violent quiet sounds within - and Sora appeared, blue eyes wide. For a moment, Riku's heart stopped, but he pressed the flyer against the pane. The window itself flew open and Riku's was pulled in, the excitement between the two enough to satiate him even as Sora stripped his nightclothes, exchanging them for jeans and a red pullover hoodie. They tiptoed down the stairs and burst out onto the crisp autumn Saturday, Sora with his skateboard under his arm, pausing long enough to wait for Riku's to get his.

They were in town just as the breakfast diners shuddered to neon sign life and watched with awed expressions, the spectacle being set up in the park. Black clad men and women silently set up booths painted in rich purples and reds, acid green and gold. The old carousel in the middle of the park had sprung back to life, filling the early morning air with its saccharine melody. The smell of candy apples and sweet bread filled the air.

By noon the park had filled up and Sora had had his fill of sweet breads. A candy skull was wrapped up in his pocket.

"Hey look," Riku said, elbowing Sora. A booth to their left was alright with candles. A sharp, angular face hovered over them.

"Enjoying the festival, boys?" The man asked, his grin made of fire.

"What's your name?" Sora asked suddenly. There was something unsettling about the man, the way he held Sora's gaze too long. As though they knew each other.

"Axel," the man said. "Commit it to memory."

Strangely enough, he didn't need to be told. The sound of the name scorched his ears. He could feel himself blushing, and under Riku's confused stare he felt almost guilty.

* * *

Night fell like the soft drape of curtains, and Sora found himself alone, a candy apple half eaten in his hand. He frowned lightly. A moment ago, he'd been walking through the lower graveyard with Riku, but it seemed as though they'd fallen out of step. A quick scan of the general area turned up nothing but a steadily emptying festival. Sora shivered against the breeze. After tonight he would have to reopen the argument that Riku had a cellphone and he didn't.

Finally, after running up and down the row of closing booths, Sora thought he saw a figure sitting on the edge of the carousel. Remembering that they used to ride it as children, he sprang up the small hill and jumped aboard, gripping a golden pole and wondering why it hadn't been shut off yet.

The music was gone, though,and Sora suddenly realized that it was very warm, and the animals appeared to be winding themselves _backward_. Behind him, the graveyard and the park melted together in a hazy blur. A gloved hand rested on the lover's bench and Sora at once became aware that the warmth was emanating from hundreds of candles at the inner edge of the platform.

"I've been looking for you, Roxas," Axel murmured.

There was something in it that made Sora calmer, somehow. He wedged his skateboard between the legs of a prancing Pegasus and walked over to face the man.

"Roxas," Axel greeted, his eyes reflecting the candlelight.

"I'm not - " Sora began, but Axel cut him off with a delicate wave of the hand.

"Not now. You were. Or you're going to be. I don't know exactly how it works. But _you_ pulled me here, and in a moment, you'll be Roxas again. You'll be _mine_."

They held a locked gaze, and Sora began to feel it. The warm penetrating him, pulling something out from deep within his soul, reaching out to Axel. The mirrors flashing quickly past from the inner core of the machine showed him a rapid, painless body transformation, stripping the last traces of baby fat from his face, darkening the blue of his eyes, defining the dormant musculature of his shins and forearms, lightening his hair. Axel watched with an expression of growing lust, as though it were his clothing and not his self being torn away.

When it was done, Sora could only feel himself on the inside. This new person, this Roxas was dominant in nature. Thankfully, though, he could feel the strong thread of control connected to him. He still had his free will. Whatever Roxas might be to Axel, _he_ had the power to dictate the reunion.

"I'm sorry," Axel said first. "I should have gone after you."

The words Roxas want to say filtered through Sora's control easily. "It doesn't matter anymore. And I never would have doubted that you loved me."

Axels hand trembled on the seat. "I love you. So much." He gestured toward the candles. "After I died... I that's what it was... I searched for any way to bring you back. But you returned to your other. I was incomplete. I... I did things I'm ashamed of. But this is how it ends. After tonight I'll finally let go. These candles bring back the spirits of our loved ones. They'll expire and I'll lose my hold."

Sora allowed Roxas to take a few shaky steps forward and outstretch a hand. Axel took it at one, pressing lips to knuckles and palm, burning the skin with need.

For a brief moment, Sora resisted. He knew what Axel wanted. He could see it happening. It was frightening, but all the more because that subtle curiosity, the one that flared up whenever Riku's hand lit on his shoulder or the way his spine rippled the skin on his back when they swam in the ocean - it was there. It was close enough to pull the mask off of. Roxas let out a quiet moan of gratitude as Sora let go of the control.

Axel's clothes peeled away easily under their fingers and when their mouths melted together Sora closed his sight and allowed himself to pretend that we're it not for the scorching, this could be Riku. These could be Riku's hands dipping below the waistband of his pants, begging.

"I want you, Roxas. Please."

This could be Riku's secret, most intimate flesh around his fingers, tightening around his cock. Axel spread his legs wider and gave every last bit of his soul to the last kiss.

* * *

Riku found Sora sitting on a headstone, looking wistfully toward the now dark carousel. Everyone else had gone, and he had spent a frantic thirteen minutes combing the entire festival.

"I was looking for you," he accused, though even as Sora turned to face him - and there was something different about his face, something less childish. In the moonlight, his cheekbones seemed more defined. The roundness was gone. When he stood he was at least half an inch taller. When had all of that happened? He'd be fourteen in a few hours. Maybe that was it.

"I'm sorry," he answered, meaning it. And then, with the slightest hesitation, he leaned forward and placed a single, chaste kiss at the corner of Riku's mouth. "Let's go home now."

* * *

_**Fin**_


End file.
